On Tuesday the company revealed it plans to start offering new parents “unlimited” leave for a year following the birth or adoption of a child.
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As a part of the strategy to retain staff, Netflix has announced that it would allow parents to take time-off from work for as long as they want under the company’s new policies that have just been revealed. The company was researching maternity leave policies when an employee became pregnant, which was a first for the then 5-year-old company.
“Netflix’s continued success hinges on us competing for and keeping the most talented individuals in their field”, Tawni Cranz, Netflix’s chief talent officer, said in the post.
The Netflix policy far exceeds typical leave at large U.S. corporations. Hogan said that outside the United States, “we will continue to review what’s offered in each country and work to align to our global benefits philosophy and the local regulations and dynamics in each market”.
Some experts actually suggest having a generous vacation policy as opposed to unlimited time out, say five weeks vacation time or a specific amount of maternity leave.
But Sladek, the Aon Hewitt partner, said more US companies have been asking her about paid leave and whether their competitors are offering it, so there is interest.
The generous policy was quickly followed by Microsoft’s announcement of paid parental leave of 12 weeks in addition to the eight weeks of maternity leave. Parents can also take seven to 12 weeks of paid “baby bonding” time during their child’s first year. Only 17 percent provide any paid paternity leave for fathers.
The new and likely unprecedented policy presents real advantages for moms and dads, who won’t have to worry about getting paid while they attend to the important task of caring for a child.
Leave your comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter using #WBZTalker. But even that last option is limited, as only four states have publicly funded paid maternity leave. She said it would not be a significant cost for other employers to add several more weeks to their current paid leave. How would the offer of a year of leave have changed your early parenthood experience?
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The new initiative seems a little too good to be true, but top tech companies do tend to offer some pretty competitive allowances for parents.
